“The Art of the Deal”

An independent judiciary was established under Chapter III of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act, where hearing are conducted in public and the decision of one judge is appealable to a review by several judges with the number of judges increasing with each level of review. The independent legal system is governed by the “Rule of Law”.

However in the case of financial services, Australian Public Servants have developed a “shadow legal system”, where the “Art of the Deal” has replaced the “Rule of Law”.

In this shadow legal system“decisions” as to whether to enforce the law or not, are made in secretive “behind closed door meetings” between vested interests where a “deal” is struct to achieve the required “regulatory outcome” that is in the “best interests” of the client of the “public servants”.

Once a decision has been made by a non-elected “public servant”, that decision is not subject to any avenues of appeal.

Furthermore, there is no independent “integrity review” agency with oversight over the conduct of public servants who make the decisions whether to enforce the laws of the country or not.

Other aspects of the shadow legal system are summarised in the following table.